


Tragedy By Numbers

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [478]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, post-Jeff's disappearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 00:12:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: preludeinz requested: figures





	Tragedy By Numbers

Scott sometimes thought his job was to sit there in a dark suit and pretend to be a statue.

He thought it obvious he’d spent every night since the inquest started alone with a bottle and his rage and grief and regret, but still there was a stupid kind of pageantry that seemed to be expected of him.

And so Scott sat, representing the family, as the inquest dragged on and on and on.  

Apparently the CEO of the biggest multinational on the planet disappearing couldn’t be treated just as a private tragedy.

There was no way he was subjecting anyone else to this.  But that meant he had to sit alone and listen to the horrible truth get dressed up in fancy words only to be stripped back down to bare bones over and over again.

It was Figure 76 that did it.  

The graph was meant to be cold, neutral, impartial.  But Scott was a pilot too, and in the steep descent of the graph, Scott could hear engines whining, the dials spinning out as the jet tumbled out of the sky.

He didn’t remember pushing his way out of the room, didn’t remember vomiting into the sink.  He came back to himself, one hand planted against the mirror, spitting the taste of acid out of his mouth, feeling the whole incredible unbearable weight of the truth pressing down between his shoulders.

Scott took three deep breathes and ran the taps.  The water tasted vaguely metallic as he swished it across his tongue and spat it out.

Straightening shoulders that wanted to bow under the pressure, Scott straightened his tie, nodded at the pale ghost in the reflection, and went back to the inquest.


End file.
